Consequences

If I'm being tailgated on the highway and, in order to "teach the guy a lesson," I deliberately jam on my brakes, causing a chain reaction of collisions that kills eleven people, am I responsible for their deaths?

I would argue that I am the primary cause of death. Yes, the other drivers should not have followed so close, but if it weren't for me and my reckless act, no accidents would have occurred and no one would have been killed.

Now consider this example: Donald Trump ordered the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Thereafter, at least 232 people have been killed because of two incidents that grew out of Trump's order.

First, at least 56 people were killed in a crushing crowd during Soleimani's funeral (details here).

And second, at least 176 people were killed when an Ukrainian commercial jet crashed shortly after takeoff in Tehran (details here and here). The jet likely was shot down by the Iranian military which either confused it as an attack or because it was in the way of a missile fired at an American military base, where no casualties were reported.

Yes, the Iranians are partly to blame for the air crash. The could have done nothing after the Soleimani killing.

But Trump was the one who caused the domino chain to start. If he had not ordered Soleimani's killing, there would have been no funeral and thus no crush. And the Ukranian jet likely would not have crashed.

When asked if he bore any responsibility for these deaths, Trump of course said no and blamed the Iranians. A raging narcissist like him would never accept any kind of responsibility for anything that did not flatter himself.